This invention relates generally to the field of dispensing systems and more particularly, to an improved item dispensing system.
State sponsored lotteries are a popular and accepted method of generating revenue in place of, or in addition to, taxes. One form of lottery uses instant lottery tickets on which number combinations are preprinted before distribution, thereby permitting the player to immediately view the ticket and know whether he/she is a winner. One system of distributing instant lottery tickets is entirely clerical with the tickets being stored in a drawer and counted out by hand. The clerk typically is responsible for keeping track of the number of tickets sold, making redemption payments and providing such sales and payout information to the state. The state then pays the store owner a commission or other monies due. Such a system has the disadvantages of being completely manual and requiring clerical assistance for the entire transaction. Further, the system has no significant security and is susceptible to shrinkage, that is, theft and accounting errors that result in lost revenue and tickets.
Another system for distributing instant lottery tickets is the individual ticket vending machine, which is a stand-alone, unattended automated ticket dispenser. The vending machine accepts the customer""s cash or credit card payment and provides a selection of lottery tickets corresponding to the payment. The customer then makes various ticket selections having a value equaling the payment. The vending machine monitors the ticket selections and dispenses the lottery tickets selected by the customer. Such a vending machine has the advantages of not requiring the attention of a clerk, being very secure, and providing a high level of reporting by keeping track of how often the machine is accessed to be loaded and serviced, when and how much money is collected, when and which tickets have been selected, etc. The vending machine may also include a printer for printing reports of machine activity. While the above vending machine has many advantages over the clerical method of distributing instant lottery tickets, it has several disadvantages.
First, many retail establishments have several ticket vending machines which may be either stand-alone machines or machines requiring a clerical facilitation in the sale of tickets. Even though each of the machines has a ticket inventory and sales reporting capability, all of that reporting must be manually collected from each of the machines which is labor intensive and time consuming.
Further, it is necessary for such reporting to be supplied to a state administrative agency, for example, a state lottery commission. It is known that individual ticket vending machines can be connected directly to a central computer at the state agency, so that all of the reporting can be directly transferred to the state agency at any time and with a high level of security. While such systems are technically possible, as a practical matter, they are not often implemented. Providing electrical communications between a state central computer and each of the thousands of ticket vending machines in a state is a difficult, complex and costly task that requires continuing maintenance and management. It is a task that neither the retailer nor the state have any incentive to underwrite or undertake. Further, any communications connection into the ticket dispensing machine has the possibility of conflicting with and complicating service agreements that the state authority has with vendors of the ticket dispensing machines. Vendors of such machines often lease the machines to the states and maintain a communications link with the machine for maintenance and reporting purposes.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a ticket dispensing system that is more convenient to the retailer and provides the retailer with the capability of consolidating the reporting requirements at a central location. Further, there is a need for a ticket dispensing system that facilitates automated reporting to a state authority that administers a state-wide ticket dispensing operation.
The present invention provides an item dispensing system that automates and simplifies the reporting of item dispensing information. The present invention provides a distributed system that facilitates the transmission, processing and reporting of information relating to item dispensing and sales. The present invention is especially suitable for those installations in which a vendor of the item dispensers has an obligation of servicing the item dispensers and also has an interest in collecting data relating to the items dispensed. The dispensing system of the present invention has the advantage of combining the needs of a servicing agent and a client or customer of the vendor into a single, distributed data collection and reporting system.
According to the principles of the present invention in accordance with one presently preferred embodiment, an item dispensing system includes a plurality of item dispensers at different retail locations. The item dispensers have processors for collecting data relating to the items dispensed. A host computer in electrical communications with processors in the item dispensers receives and stores the data relating to the items dispensed. A client computer in electrical communications with the host computer receives the data relating to the items dispensed. Thus, the invention provides for the reporting of data relating to the items dispensed to a client via a host computer that collects the data from the item dispensers. The host computer is typically a third party computer which is servicing the item dispensers and hence, the client has real time access to the data without having to support a data collection network.
In one aspect of the invention, retailer computers are located at the retailer locations for collecting data from the item dispensers at respective retailer locations. In another aspect of the invention, there are a plurality of client computers; and the retailer locations, the host computer and the client computers are geographically remote from each other. In a still further aspect of the invention, the item dispensers are lottery ticket dispensers, and the client computers are associated with different states operating different lotteries.
In another embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for collecting data relating to item sales and dispensing from each of a plurality of item dispensers located at different retailer locations. The plurality of item dispensers have respective dispenser computers for collecting the data relating to item sales and dispensing. Next, data relating to item sales and dispensing is transferred from the dispenser computers at the different retailer locations to a host computer. The data relating to item sales and dispensing is stored at the host computer. Next, the data relating to item sales and dispensing is transferred from the host computer to a client computer.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent during the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings herein.